The best story so far for me was Xenoblade Chronicles, after that Nier Replicant (havent played Automate yet) and the Trails series (probably Zero the best)
When it comes to memorable mature stories in games I usually think of the Xenosaga Trilogy, although episode 2 is a bit meh to me, and the original 4 .hack games, not really G.U. though. Tetsya Takahashi and Monolith Soft have come up with some of the more mature stories with their Xeno series, but I think they've lightened up quite a bit since they started doing Xenoblade. I think Xenosaga was kind of the peak of the story telling for the series with Episode 1 and 3 even though it's really flawed at times, and I can't help but feel they've been holding themselves back when it comes to tackling the heavy subject matter they did in Xenogears and Xenosaga because they're owned by Nintendo nowadays. I love Xenoblade for the exploration and gameplay and I think the characters are really well written, but the one thing I think it's missing is having really flawed protagonists like Xenogears and Xenosaga had. Like Shion having Stockholm syndrome when it comes to her boyfriend makes her very unlikeable in the last game, but I much prefer seeing flawed characters like that trying to get over their flaws and move on than the rote "We're fighting for out future" messaging we've been getting with the Xenoblade games. Seriously Takahashi, Monolith, and Nintendo let loose with mature themes in future Xeno games or whatever new IP they decide to do. I much prefer Xenogears and Xenosaga's story telling over Xenoblade even though it's still pretty good. As for .hack there is a bit of a caveat to it as it is a multimedia franchise and half of the first story arc is with the SIGN anime and the other half is with the first 4 games (IMOQ). Anyway this first story arc was written by the Ghost in the Shell movie writer, Kazunori Ito, and it covers a lot of similar subject matter as that movie and series cover. There's a theme of existentialism for both the human and AI characters, and I honestly sympathize quite a lot with both sides of the conflict. A programmer wanted to create an AI child, but didn't foresee that the program he made to create that child became self aware and sentient itself. It feared it's inevitable deletion upon giving birth to the child, so it does everything it can to prevent that child's birth. Even becoming a dangerous computer virus that threatens the real world as well as the game. A lot of characters have a lot of depth to them and while some of the conversations in SIGN are about inane stuff they're doing in the real world it really fleshes them out a lot more. Honestly if IMOQ ever gets a remake I'd like to see more of these kinds of conversations show up in the actual game as you only really get a sense of who some of the characters are in the real world with the light novel (Another Birth) and web novel (New Testament) retelling of them. I also wouldn't mind more exploration of the AI characters like Aura and Mia if a remake happens too, heck give Morgana, the villain AI, some actual dialogue in the games like she has in SIGN. The reason why G.U. doesn't really make my mature story criteria though is because they went for a more comedic Shonen anime approach with it's story, and volume 1 in particular it's kind of hard to take anything but a couple scenes seriously because of this. Not to mention Haseo is a complete edgelord in volume 1, but thankfully mellows out in volume 2. Volume 2 is definitely more mature with it's story telling and I really like the whole Moon Tree infiltration segment where Atoli's backstory is explored, easily one of the best parts of the entire series as a whole. Unfortunately Volume 3 drops the ball and feels really rushed. Heck the final boss feel completely out of nowhere unless you played IMOQ and know it'll show up when all of the powers of the characters are combined. Though I do think the Tri-Edge fight part of volume 3 is on par with what volume 2 did in terms of story. I will say that CC2's current Fuga Melodies of Steel series is definitely back to being the kind of mature I liked with IMOQ and it can be even darker, like for how cute the games can be at times seeing all of the soul canon firing scenes is just devastating when you're pretty attached to the characters. I'm hoping CC2 continues with self publishing their original IPs and I would love to see them return to .hack someday too, whether Bandai approves it or they do a spiritual successor. I also hope people will eventually recognize that their original IPs have story telling on par with what Monolith Soft does and stop just thinking of CC2 as a developer that makes anime games.
I still have to play Neir Automata, but the existential dread of knowing I have to play it over and over again to see the real ending may keep from ever starting it up. But on a more positive note as someone who has played WitchSpring R it is a great game with a perfect balance of everything. I would not really call it mature even though it has some mature themes. Its a coming of age story where the character grows up through the story, and it is done in a fun/whimsical way that will stick with me.
You only really have to play Nier Automata story, part 1, twice. And the second time is from a different view point. After that, you play the second half of the game once, which unlocks the ability to chapter select so you only have to play the last chapter twice to see all the endings (and get the true ending). It's not that bad.
13 Sentinels was such a surprise to me, when I played it but in an awesome way. Nothing was kinda expected it just hit hard while the brain was building more and more ideas. It was awesome in the same way as I'm disappointed by Trails through Daybreak at the moment. Just arrived in chapter 5 and how repetitive and predictable can one game be?
good list! Even tho so far i played SMTV has not a very grand story, i think it's writing is also very mature and i appreciate that. Also the new Yakuza games , the mainplot is pretty mature. Gosh i wish they would finally port lost odyssey :(
Oh yeah, act 1 of Abyss. That ending was horrifying back when I played it. I was only around 13 or so. This game has an USK 6 rating. People flipping die onscreen in this game! Same with Symphonia 2s finale. You fight the hardest Boss up to that point and then they literally get killed onscreen! Back to Abyss, Act 1 horrifies you and then gives the most harrowing explanation why Luke is the way he is. He is a child with no idea what is going on. His whole existence is a lie. He was born to die for someone else. For someone whose life he stole without ever meaning to. I am actually in awe for how Luke copes with this without going insane. The one person he trusted most just saw him as a disposable tool to use and then discard afterwards. This boy has it rough. Abyss is even more impactful if you realize just how insanely depressing Lukes situation is. He struggles the whole game to come to terms with who he really is. He experiences so many horrible things that would break most children. And he is a child. Abyss is just amazing and I really hope it gets the Remaster it deserves one day. This game is too good to be locked on 13 year old hardware. I love my 3DS but playing this game on TV would be insanely amazing.
9:35 Well this was a huge spoiler for me... and it kinda ruined the prospect of buying P3 completely. I was doubtful of buying P3 because there's many issues with its gameplay and Tartarus, but the story was the thing that might have convinced me to do so... but now...
Lol that's your fault. There's a spoiler warning 10 seconds in, and chapter markings to avoid the ones you don't want to see. Blame yourself for that one.
how interesting Nier Automata was mentioned, final episode of the anime released not long ago and gave a more detailed ending E. Also how can we forget about Romeo and Juliet skit. 😂 While i can agree about what you said in Persona 3 Reload but i would go for Persona 5 Royal as it shows the deep darkness and cruelty of people and how people would prefer to be told what to do rather than find their own path in life. Nothing else to say about Trails than what you have already have told, Renne accepting Estelle and Joshua and vice versa after learning of her past hit right in the kokoro.🥲
![[UA] Eternal Fire проти NAVI | EPL Season 20 Malta](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/chvlsDygrZM/mqdefault.jpg)
Thank you to KiwiWalks and WitchSpring R for sponsoring this video!
📌Link to purchase (digital and physical) - bit.ly/3MOTES3
wow ff9 already on the list!
Definitely, great story!
The best story so far for me was Xenoblade Chronicles,
after that Nier Replicant (havent played Automate yet) and the Trails series (probably Zero the best)
We really need a Tales of the Abyss remaster.
Agreed man. I have a physical copy of the 3DS version, but I really wanna play it on my TV. This game is just too good.
Man just seeing tht scene of Estelle finally catching Renne brought a tear to my eye again
The best moment in the crossbell saga
When it comes to memorable mature stories in games I usually think of the Xenosaga Trilogy, although episode 2 is a bit meh to me, and the original 4 .hack games, not really G.U. though.
Tetsya Takahashi and Monolith Soft have come up with some of the more mature stories with their Xeno series, but I think they've lightened up quite a bit since they started doing Xenoblade. I think Xenosaga was kind of the peak of the story telling for the series with Episode 1 and 3 even though it's really flawed at times, and I can't help but feel they've been holding themselves back when it comes to tackling the heavy subject matter they did in Xenogears and Xenosaga because they're owned by Nintendo nowadays.
I love Xenoblade for the exploration and gameplay and I think the characters are really well written, but the one thing I think it's missing is having really flawed protagonists like Xenogears and Xenosaga had. Like Shion having Stockholm syndrome when it comes to her boyfriend makes her very unlikeable in the last game, but I much prefer seeing flawed characters like that trying to get over their flaws and move on than the rote "We're fighting for out future" messaging we've been getting with the Xenoblade games. Seriously Takahashi, Monolith, and Nintendo let loose with mature themes in future Xeno games or whatever new IP they decide to do. I much prefer Xenogears and Xenosaga's story telling over Xenoblade even though it's still pretty good.
As for .hack there is a bit of a caveat to it as it is a multimedia franchise and half of the first story arc is with the SIGN anime and the other half is with the first 4 games (IMOQ). Anyway this first story arc was written by the Ghost in the Shell movie writer, Kazunori Ito, and it covers a lot of similar subject matter as that movie and series cover. There's a theme of existentialism for both the human and AI characters, and I honestly sympathize quite a lot with both sides of the conflict. A programmer wanted to create an AI child, but didn't foresee that the program he made to create that child became self aware and sentient itself. It feared it's inevitable deletion upon giving birth to the child, so it does everything it can to prevent that child's birth. Even becoming a dangerous computer virus that threatens the real world as well as the game.
A lot of characters have a lot of depth to them and while some of the conversations in SIGN are about inane stuff they're doing in the real world it really fleshes them out a lot more. Honestly if IMOQ ever gets a remake I'd like to see more of these kinds of conversations show up in the actual game as you only really get a sense of who some of the characters are in the real world with the light novel (Another Birth) and web novel (New Testament) retelling of them. I also wouldn't mind more exploration of the AI characters like Aura and Mia if a remake happens too, heck give Morgana, the villain AI, some actual dialogue in the games like she has in SIGN.
The reason why G.U. doesn't really make my mature story criteria though is because they went for a more comedic Shonen anime approach with it's story, and volume 1 in particular it's kind of hard to take anything but a couple scenes seriously because of this. Not to mention Haseo is a complete edgelord in volume 1, but thankfully mellows out in volume 2. Volume 2 is definitely more mature with it's story telling and I really like the whole Moon Tree infiltration segment where Atoli's backstory is explored, easily one of the best parts of the entire series as a whole. Unfortunately Volume 3 drops the ball and feels really rushed. Heck the final boss feel completely out of nowhere unless you played IMOQ and know it'll show up when all of the powers of the characters are combined. Though I do think the Tri-Edge fight part of volume 3 is on par with what volume 2 did in terms of story.
I will say that CC2's current Fuga Melodies of Steel series is definitely back to being the kind of mature I liked with IMOQ and it can be even darker, like for how cute the games can be at times seeing all of the soul canon firing scenes is just devastating when you're pretty attached to the characters. I'm hoping CC2 continues with self publishing their original IPs and I would love to see them return to .hack someday too, whether Bandai approves it or they do a spiritual successor. I also hope people will eventually recognize that their original IPs have story telling on par with what Monolith Soft does and stop just thinking of CC2 as a developer that makes anime games.
With Bamco rereleasing Tales of Graces, I really hope they give Abyss another look.
That game desperately needs a modern platform release.
Witchspring R definitely deserves a video of it's own, genuinely the best game I've played this year
We need more games like this. Give us more interesting stories!
Personally I would put Sky the 3rd above Zero, but it is a good choice.
Star Door 15 hunts me even today 💀
この動画でZEROを買おうと決めました。ありがとう！
I still have to play Neir Automata, but the existential dread of knowing I have to play it over and over again to see the real ending may keep from ever starting it up. But on a more positive note as someone who has played WitchSpring R it is a great game with a perfect balance of everything. I would not really call it mature even though it has some mature themes. Its a coming of age story where the character grows up through the story, and it is done in a fun/whimsical way that will stick with me.
You only really have to play Nier Automata story, part 1, twice. And the second time is from a different view point. After that, you play the second half of the game once, which unlocks the ability to chapter select so you only have to play the last chapter twice to see all the endings (and get the true ending). It's not that bad.
If you haven't already done so, play Nier Replicant 1.22 to get the complete Nier experience since it's a prequel and what came first.
13 Sentinels was such a surprise to me, when I played it but in an awesome way. Nothing was kinda expected it just hit hard while the brain was building more and more ideas. It was awesome in the same way as I'm disappointed by Trails through Daybreak at the moment. Just arrived in chapter 5 and how repetitive and predictable can one game be?
good list! Even tho so far i played SMTV has not a very grand story, i think it's writing is also very mature and i appreciate that. Also the new Yakuza games , the mainplot is pretty mature. Gosh i wish they would finally port lost odyssey :(
For me in the recent years it was FF16. For me personaly it was as good as Nier
FF9 and trails from sky trilogy were two of my absolute favourites they had an amazing cast and story
Oh yeah, act 1 of Abyss. That ending was horrifying back when I played it. I was only around 13 or so. This game has an USK 6 rating. People flipping die onscreen in this game! Same with Symphonia 2s finale. You fight the hardest Boss up to that point and then they literally get killed onscreen! Back to Abyss, Act 1 horrifies you and then gives the most harrowing explanation why Luke is the way he is. He is a child with no idea what is going on. His whole existence is a lie. He was born to die for someone else. For someone whose life he stole without ever meaning to. I am actually in awe for how Luke copes with this without going insane. The one person he trusted most just saw him as a disposable tool to use and then discard afterwards. This boy has it rough. Abyss is even more impactful if you realize just how insanely depressing Lukes situation is. He struggles the whole game to come to terms with who he really is. He experiences so many horrible things that would break most children. And he is a child. Abyss is just amazing and I really hope it gets the Remaster it deserves one day. This game is too good to be locked on 13 year old hardware. I love my 3DS but playing this game on TV would be insanely amazing.
Always glad to see Abyss getting some appreciation. Great list overall!
Lost Odyssey was so good. Pity we'll never see another one like it.
Witch Spring was definitely overshadowed by year-end lists. Cool that it's getting another shot.
We know it’s coming everytime but I appreciate how you put Trails on these lists
3 of them is fantastic the rest is pretty meh ngl.
new video nice ✨
:D
Aegis rim is a cheat pick here :D
If we allow visual novels then they would cover the whole list.
It isn't a visual novel, is not considered as such on Vndb or Backloggd, as half of it's playtime is RPG battles.
9:35 Well this was a huge spoiler for me... and it kinda ruined the prospect of buying P3 completely. I was doubtful of buying P3 because there's many issues with its gameplay and Tartarus, but the story was the thing that might have convinced me to do so... but now...
Lol that's your fault. There's a spoiler warning 10 seconds in, and chapter markings to avoid the ones you don't want to see. Blame yourself for that one.
how interesting Nier Automata was mentioned, final episode of the anime released not long ago and gave a more detailed ending E. Also how can we forget about Romeo and Juliet skit. 😂
While i can agree about what you said in Persona 3 Reload but i would go for Persona 5 Royal as it shows the deep darkness and cruelty of people and how people would prefer to be told what to do rather than find their own path in life.
Nothing else to say about Trails than what you have already have told, Renne accepting Estelle and Joshua and vice versa after learning of her past hit right in the kokoro.🥲